Nancy's Scandalous Love Life

Bruce Von Stiers

Nancy Bacon was the youngest child of a large family. They had a farm in Ellensburg, Washington, about an hour east of Seattle. Nancy ran away from the farm and family as a young teen. She ended up in Wickenburg, Arizona, working as a waitress. Nancy finally saved enough money to get to where she really wanted to be, Los Angeles.

From landing in L.A. to the various loves and losses in her life, Nancy had a very interesting life. She had several celebrity lovers over the years. Nancy detailed many of the liaisons and affairs in kind of a tell-all book. The title of the book is Legends And Lipstick: My Scandalous Stories of Hollywood's Golden Era.

There was an earlier version of the book published in 1975 titled Stars In My Eyes, Stars In My Bed. This newer version was published in 2017 by Excessive Nuance and contains updated content.

The book has a foreword by Stacey Keith, who has written a tell-all book herself. There is also a two-page lead-in from Nancy before she launches into her tell-all stories. The book also has an afterword and some acknowledgements. At the end of the book there is Nancy's obituary, which was written by her daughter, Staci Layne Wilson.

Nancy begins her stories by explaining how she came under the tutelage of Jim Byron, a Hollywood agent. He got her an agent, who in turn got Nancy modeling jobs. It was on one of those modeling jobs where Nancy met actor Hugh O'Brian. They became a thing. Although Nancy provided some details of their sexual activities, they weren't lurid play-by-play.

Along the way, Nancy obtained the nickname, Buni. And that was how she was listed in the couple of films that acted in. They weren't starring roles, although Nancy had thought she might become the next Elizabeth Taylor. That was kind of the opposite of her original intention of being in L.A., which was to be an artist for Walt Disney Studios. One of the films Nancy was in starred Mickey Rooney and another starred Louis Nye. Neither of the films were blockbusters, but they did give Nancy more exposure to the Hollywood elite.

Nancy writes about her lifelong friendship with an actor named Griff. He appears in various places throughout Nancy's stories.

Nancy writes of a short but intense involvement with Errol Flynn. And then she moved on to an affair with Vince Edwards, who would later star in the Ben Casey television series.

A short stint as a showgirl in Las Vegas led Nancy into the orbit of the Rat Pack. But Sinatra let everyone know she was underage, so hands off.

Then Nancy goes on to tell about her long term relationship with screenwriter Jim Heneghan. Through him, Nancy meets and hangs out with a whole bunch of celebrities over time. From L.A. to London to Paris to New York, Nancy and Heneghan had an up and down relationship.

Nancy writes about meeting and interacting with actors like John Wayne and Glenn Ford. She met Orson Welles and Mel Brooks.

Along the way in tales of her own adventures, Nancy interjects tidbits about certain celebrities and actors. She had a fairly extensive knowledge of Elizabeth Taylor's life, and she detailed it in the book. Nancy hung out with Marilyn Monroe at times, so some of Marilyn's life was included too. Then there were tidbits about Judy Garland and Jayne Mansfield.

In addition to hanging out with some of the Hollywood elite, Nancy became the editor of the gossip magazine, Confidential. So not only did Nancy have juicy stories of her own to tell, she had access to a bunch of star's dirty laundry.

Later in the book Nancy details her affair with Paul Newman. Nancy didn't exactly make it a secret that they were together. She even mentions that it was one of those worst kept secrets things. Along with that affair, I tried to research some of the others to find out if someone contested Nancy's claims. Of all of the affairs and lovers that Nancy wrote about, Newman's was the only one I found. One article I researched said that the affair was “disputed in the press.” Whatever that meant.

Nancy had breast cancer and she covered that quite extensively in the book. From finding out about the cancer, through all the steps leading up to a double mastectomy and all of the depression and hopefulness that came with it.

And, as she had hard drinking partners, and through the lifestyle and, later, the situations that came with the breast cancer, Nancy became an alcoholic. Nancy chronicles her decline and eventual recovery.

One thing that Nancy lightly touched on is her marriage. She was married for a short time to Don Wilson, the founder of the surf rock group, The Ventures. Apparently wanting to keep that portion of her life fairly private, Nancy didn't write very much about it. Nancy does mention that a daughter, Staci Layne Wilson, was born from that marriage. Again, probably for the privacy of Don Wilson and Staci, Nancy didn't go into much detail about them.

Before I forget, the book does have several pages of photos of Nancy and various people featured in the stories.

One thing that I did find interesting, besides all of the liaisons and affairs, is that Nancy wrote several novels. They were more or less romance novels with titles such as Bayou Lady, Loves and Dreams and Honeysuckle Moon.

The final segment of the book is an excerpt from the book So L.A.: A Hollywood Memoir. It is from Nancy's daughter, Staci Layne Wilson. The book details growing up in L.A. in the 1960's and 1970's having “showbiz parents.”

Legends And Lipstick is a very interesting book. Nancy Bacon does provide some scandalous stories of her affairs with some of Hollywood's top leading men. Whether they were all true is for the reader to decide for themselves. The stories are indeed entertaining, if not eyebrow raising.

Legends And Lipstick is available at retailers such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

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© 2023 Bruce E Von Stiers